Jimmy Weaver, a nurse at San Juan Regional Medical Center, filed a complaint with the Farmington Police Department this week, alleging that Officer Mike Briseno shoved him after an argument over patient privacy at the hospital on Sunday, the Farmington Daily Times reported.

The citizen's complaint accuses Briseno of assault, lack of courtesy during contact and disregard of federal privacy laws during an altercation, the paper said.

Weaver said the officer was supervising a patient in custody in an emergency treatment room around 11 p.m. Sunday, when a second patient was brought in on the other side of a privacy curtain, the Daily Times reported.

Briseno, a member of the police gang task force, apparently recognized the second patient -- a 14-year-old boy -- and refused Weaver's request to move closer to the patient he was monitoring while the boy was changing into a hospital gown, according to the complaint.

Weaver said Briseno refused to move behind the privacy curtain, then following a verbal altercation, shoved him in the chest, the Daily Times said.

"He had no right to lay a hand on me. (Police) just can't come into the emergency room treating us that way," Weaver said.

An internal police department investigation of the incident is under way, but Lt. Vince Mitchell wouldn't comment on the details, the Daily Times reported.

Briseno has not faced disciplinary action in connection with the Sunday incident, Mitchell said.

But hospital spokesman Dennis Mathis told the Daily Times that Weaver, who has worked at San Juan Regional Medical Center for about a year, was placed on administrative leave following the incident.

Briseno was at the center of a 2004 incident in which he was accused of misconduct by Farmington resident Juan Mata, which led to a flurry of charges and counter-charges between Mata, Briseno and the city, the Daily Times reported.